Rotting

The first person Yimo chose to visit was Tian Mazi, the man Tiger Aunt had mentioned.

Judging from what she'd said, Tian Mazi should have lived alone. Otherwise, there'd have been no need for the other aunties to visit him and make a point of asking after him!

Following the map marker, Yimo reached a noticeably more remote part of town. The houses were clearly old, and not many people still lived nearby.

Tian Mazi's home was a two-story house with a courtyard and a surrounding wall. Weeds grew on its old roof tiles, giving it a strong sense of age. It had probably housed who knew how many generations.

Through the single iron gate, Yimo could see that quite a few vegetables had been planted in the courtyard, and they were well tended.

For a man living alone, keeping things up like this certainly made him diligent.

Yimo glanced at the iron gate and saw that it wasn't locked.

After making sure no one was around, he put on a mask, pushed the gate open, then carefully closed it behind him.

Yimo didn't hurry to knock. Instead, he pressed his ear against the front door, wanting to hear whether anything strange was happening inside.

Bzz-bzz-bzz-!

It was very quiet outside. A strange sound came from inside the house.

It was very faint, but if he listened carefully, he could still make out some noise.

Like the sound of something vibrating?

Yimo frowned slightly, feeling uneasy. He didn't know whether coming to see Tian Mazi had been the right choice.

After hesitating, though, he knocked on the door.

Knock, knock, knock-!

Knock, knock, knock-!

At first, Yimo knocked softly, but when no one answered for a long time, he knocked a little harder.

But there was still no response from